Re: What score do I need to get a secured card

if you in credit step from Cap1 depend on your credit limit and after 5 or 6 month payment on time you will automatic increase $250 and pretty much that is it with your CL..Im still stuck with no CLI until now its been 2yr with cap1. some people they get lucky some other dont like me.. im about to axed the Cap1 after i pay it off.

Re: What score do I need to get a secured card

Thanks again everyone for your help. In addition to my Cap 1 (500 unsecured), I also applied for a BoA secured and was accepted back in March. I deposited $2000 and so far so good. My FICO just cracked 600 for the first time. I was at 523 when I got on the forums in February.

So here is my next question...am I better to keep putting money on the BoA card to increase the limts or should I pick up another card? I am not expecting a major purchase for another year. I have got mixed advice from a couple of people and I would love some input from the forum. Thanks.

Re: What score do I need to get a secured card

Hearing some semi bad advice. A 100 cl card helps your fico score as much as a 10k cl card. 2nd fact is the credit score is a snapshot of your credit profile. As such, no reason to keep huge limits in secured cards unless you need them. Better way is to keep gardening scores until you are ready to app for unsecured cards. Then make huge deposits to get cl up and wait for it to report. Then app for the unsecured cards. The result is the same as having huge limit on card the entire time. Once you get unsecured, you can cancel the secured and get deposits back.

Re: What score do I need to get a secured card

Crashem wrote:Hearing some semi bad advice. A 100 cl card helps your fico score as much as a 10k cl card. 2nd fact is the credit score is a snapshot of your credit profile. As such, no reason to keep huge limits in secured cards unless you need them. Better way is to keep gardening scores until you are ready to app for unsecured cards. Then make huge deposits to get cl up and wait for it to report. Then app for the unsecured cards. The result is the same as having huge limit on card the entire time. Once you get unsecured, you can cancel the secured and get deposits back.

+1 crashem is the go to man for cc advise! I must also add that bofa will more than likely hp you to add more funds to your secured card. If your willing to use a hp then i would use it elsewhere

Re: What score do I need to get a secured card

To further clarify some other things in this thread in addition to Crashem's post.

BOFA is a fantastic secured card (once you get it, call to get the 1-2-3 rewards package added), but adding money to it sort of sucks.

- The maximum is now $4900

- It's a HP to add funds to the card.

So if you're at 2K now, wait till you can get to 4900 in one shot, and there's no need to rush out and do that as Crash states: a higher CL can possibly help you get higher CL's later, but it'll do nothing at all for your FICO score that you can't manage in other ways. That said, since BOFA graduates, it's a long-term card.

Cap One on the other hand, you can keep adding money piecemeal to.

Don't know, I had some unexpected expenses come up funding a business trip, I think I'm going to try goosing my BOFA card to $4900 when I get reimbursed and see at the 12 month mark what CL I graduate with. That date lands in October so I need to do it pretty quickly if I'm going to I guess.

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